


Sanctuary

by Birdman (Birdmanbirdplan)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abuse, Child Abuse, Gaslighting, M/M, Murder, Sexual Abuse, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:28:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birdmanbirdplan/pseuds/Birdman
Summary: Twins Takashi and Ryou are as close as brothers come. At least, that’s what it appears on the outside. But as Keith starts to get closer to his college tutor, he’s beginning to see the closeness exceeds simple brotherhood.This is a thread taken from my twitter, outlining this problematic au I came up with for some spicy, dark kurosheith. It is unedited! Also thank theonewhotries for doing all the footwork of copying each post and pasting to a doc!!
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Shiro/Shiro (Voltron), Shiro/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 48





	Sanctuary

Premise is:  
Ryou and Takashi are twins adopted into an abusive home. Their parental figure has a violent and neglectful approach to their rearing and a severe addiction problem. Takashi sort of uses himself as a ‘shield’ for his brother, but tends to be punished a lot for it.  
His brother is very quiet and tearful, turns in on himself while Takashi tries to project outward by being protective. But one day their guardian is drunk again and Shiro has to go to baseball practice or be kicked off the team. He’s dragged into the car, crying.  
Ryou waits, shaking and sobbing as the car pulls away, then hours later, the cops show up to collect him. There was an accident. Their guardian is alright, sans a few cuts from the glass, but Takashi is in critical condition. Loses an arm. Won’t wake up for a few days.  
Ryou is changed after that. Doesn’t cry much anymore. Still quiet, but seems to develop a strange sort of charisma or charm. It’s very similar to Takashi’s, in fact, only more ...calculated, from Shiro’s perspective. But Ryou loves his brother and assures them they’ll be fine  
Takashi worries about him, worries he’s trying to take on too much, but his recovery is long and the support from Ryou helps him get through. 

It’s not long before he notices other changes. Ryou tricking their friends. Pretends to be Takashi. Gets upset when he’s found out.  
Then Shiro notices Ryou coming home with bottles. Hard liquor. They’re way, way too young to be buying that, so he tries to find out where he’s getting it. Where it’s going. Why he has suddenly such a large stash of it.  
Then he notices him picking fights with their caretaker  
He’ll needle them, get a rise, sometimes get hit, but sure enough, after they get angry, they go looking for bottles. One of Ryou’s bottle is in the cabinet. Placed as if it belonged there to start. 

They’ll get blackout drunk and Ryou will come to Takashi, happy to have peace  
It goes on like this, Ryou slowly doing stranger and stranger things while Shiro worries over his brother. He tries to protect him like he did before, but Ryou seems so cold to everyone now. He keeps placing bottles, keeps insisting their friends call him ‘Shiro’ not ‘Ryou’.

Shiro finds him one day, blinking back tears, strategically concealing his right arm. But Shiro sees it. His fingers are purple. He yanks up his sleeve to see Ryou has a belt pulled as tight as possible around his upper arm, cutting off circulation. 

It’s the arm Takashi lost  
He rips off the belt, pleads with his brother to never do something like that again. But Ryou is just frowning, mumbling that it ‘gives him away’.

Shiro doesn’t want to think about what it means. They comfort each other that night, as usual.  
It comes to a head when Ryou finally gets into a bad enough shouting match that their guardian comes down on him hard, hitting him mercilessly, so much that Takashi throws himself in the middle, forcefully draws attention, and of course takes on the rest of the blows  
They’re both bloody and teary, but the anger sets their parent all the way off. And there just so happens to be a full bottle of booze set up, next to a pair of car keys that had ‘gone missing’ for a while. Even with a suspended license, the set up is too easy. They take the bait  
Ryou seems weirdly relaxed in the wake of it, starts petting Takashi’s head as they bandage up and hide away in their room to await the return and further punishment. He tells his brother it’ll be over soon. 

And he’s right. The police come just as the two finish making dinner  
Another accident. This time, fatal. Gone off the road. Deemed the fault of drinking and driving, but Shiro knows he saw his brother frantically poring over books on cars. He saw him with a cable cutter. Knows who’s bottle of liquor that was.

But there’s no doubt; they’re free.  
He hopes the new life will bring his soft and sweet brother back. But it’s never like before. He doubles down on being called ‘Shiro’ by everyone but Takashi. He’s obsessive, calculating, but always sweet and smiling with his brother. He starts calling them two halves of one soul Won’t leave his side, sleeps in the same bed, even as they get old enough to not. Knows everything about all Shiro’s friends, becomes cricital of anyone who comes close. No one is ‘good’ enough for Shiro. No one but him. 

They’re two halves of the same whole, he says.

He starts to dress the same, act the same, but when Shiro questions it, his response is given matter of fact. 

They’re two halves; Shiro all the good, he, all the bad. 

Takashi is too protective, too defensive of his brother to stop when it crosses the line, further and further.  
It bleeds into entirely obsessive. Takashi is Ryou’s whole life. It becomes intimate, inappropriately so. Takashi protests, insists they should have more separation. This is wrong. But his brother is always so assured, so convincing. 

Only he knows Shiro. They’re the same.

It bleeds into a well kept, dark secret. Shiro always protests, but half heartedly. He can’t bring himself to stop his brother’s obsession, his invasiveness. And Ryou assures Shiro it’s for the best. He scares away any potential love interest after ‘testing them’. Not good enough  
Shiro is sure Ryou needs help, but he’s so fucking smart. So assured. He’s manipulative.  
Therapists don’t seem to help. They can’t even see what’s happening. He seems genuinely happy just living for his brother, trying to provide everything for him, /everything/.

Shiro generally just stops dating. It never works out. Usually scared off in not so subtle ways by Ryou, who will happily show up in his bed later while he’s asleep, even when they don’t live in the same building at the college they joined. Rather Shiro joined and Ryou followed.

And then in comes Keith.

Shiro has gotten to his last year of schooling. He and his brother are high honors. Ryou prematurely selected to advance to a master’s program a year early, but there’s tension between them. 

Shiro has demanded more space. Demands some independence.  
They need separate friends, need separate identities. And Ryou obliges, to a degree. Just enough to what he thinks is ‘beneficial’ for Shiro. But he still insists they belong together. He still will turn up in Shiro’s bed, crossing lines Shiro is afraid to stop.  
But friends are okay. A few have escaped Ryou’s judgement and Shiro has a somewhat normal life outside his secret life with his brother. 

The people deemed ‘good enough’ to stick around. 

So when Keith shows up for tutoring with Shiro, and they become friendly, it’s a matter of time before Shiro knows Ryou will judge his ‘worthiness’ to be Shiro’s friend. 

Keith meets him in Shiro’s kitchen, smiling that same bright smile and extending his hand in greeting as ‘Shiro’. He has to blink and smile, wondering if this is some sort of game?

It’s incredibly hard to tell them apart and he’s amused at first, only realizing he’s not talking to his tutor Shiro when he walks into the kitchen himself, paling slightly at the sight of the two of them interacting. 

It must be a prank they pull as twins, Keith thinks.  
But... wow, they even have a scar across the nose in the same spot? And the same hair. Seems...excessive for a joke, but he brushes it off, and the sort of particular way Shiro speaks of, or rather *doesn’t*, his brother. He didn’t even know he had a twin until witnessing it. But the darker parts start revealing themselves the closer Shiro and Keith become. Keith finds that this insistence Ryou has toward their game... isn’t really a ‘game’ Shiro is willingly participating in. He tells Keith to not spend too much time with Ryou. Best not to interact.

And as much as Ryou acts sweet and charismatic and capable, magnetic, the same as Shiro, the mask sometimes... slips. Seemingly intentionally. There’s a coldness about the act, but never around Shiro. 

“What do you want from Takashi?” Only he’s allowed to call him that  
And Shiro is the only one allowed to call him ‘Ryou’ without a palpable aversion to his first name. 

“What...?” Keith is trying to understand the question, but Ryou doesn’t even blink. 

“You hang around a lot. You must want something. You’re not just here for tutoring.”

And to a degree, yeah, he’s right. Keith has been going through his own secret troubles. Namely, a landlord that knows he can’t afford rent, so he pays in ‘other’ services. He just needs to get through school, working to pay for it himself. It’s hell, but Shiro has been a light

He’s keeping him from failing, namely, but he’s also keeping him from slipping into despair. He’s kind, but not fake. Keith has had so little kindness in his life that isn’t expected to receive ‘payment’ in return. Shiro is almost too good to be true. His brother seems to know it  
Intimately. 

“I... guess his friendship?” Keith answers awkwardly, but Ryou hasn’t stop staring, hasn’t put his ‘Shiro’ mask back on. 

“That’s not all.”

Maybe he’s not wrong, but the pressure seems strange. Overbearing. Maybe this is why Shiro said to be wary.  
It ultimately ends with Ryou being satisfied enough after pressuring Keith, but it’s enough to finally tip Keith off. Something is up with these brothers. Something is up that Shiro isn’t willing to touch on...maybe is even afraid to touch on. But the concern is never for himself. He seems concerned for Keith. Concerned for Ryou, too. But he’ll only insinuate his brother is ‘troubled’, nothing more.

Until Keith witnesses for himself. 

He comes over early after texting Shiro, needing to grab his books before class. He left one on Shiro’s desk yesterday after they spent all night studying and chatting and bonding in a way that leaves Keith feeling a little jittery. It’s a good escape from the nightmare of home life. Shiro is...well, perfect. He also has a soft spot for Keith, so he won’t mind if Keith sneaks in for his books. He doesn’t bother to knock. He doesn’t want to wake Shiro after he spent his evening helping Keith out with his studies. He needs his sleep.  
He only begins to think it might be a bad idea when he hears some soft, nondistinct sound from Shiro’s room, just outside the door  
It sounds... strange. Potentially sexual, but Keith really needs his book and it sounds as though Shiro might be dreaming. He’ll be in and out.

He isn’t expecting to see another body in the bed. He’s not expecting to see Ryou. But Ryou looks like he expected Keith.

He stares, a free hand working over Shiro as he huffs softly in the sheets, somewhere between sleep and waking, but Ryou simply brings a finger to his lips, gesturing for silence as Keith stands, stunned in the doorway. 

Ryou makes sense now. He’s in love with Shiro.

Keith leaves without the books, trying to make sense of what he’d seen, how he feels, what it means. What Shiro’s reactions mean. But the next time he sees Ryou, it blurts out of him before he can stop it.

“Did Shiro ask you to do that?” 

Ryou has his ‘Shiro’ mask on.

“Ask me to what?”

Keith just scrunches his face, not wanting to really put words to it. He doesn’t know the right ones to use.  
Ryou only plays dumb for so long. He seems entertained. Curious, maybe, that Keith would even come back to ask. 

“I comfort him without being asked.”  
“He doesn’t seem very ‘comfortable’ when he talks about you.” 

Ryou laughs. 

“I can be overbearing. But Takashi knows it’s for his own good. We take care of each other.” Something flickers in his eyes. “Something his last boyfriend didn’t get.” 

An ex? Shiro hadn’t mentioned.  
But Shiro had been tight lipped about a lot of the more intimate details of his life. Much like Keith had. No need to tell him he was bent over for the month’s ‘rent’ just two days ago. 

But it gnaws at him, wanting to know how he found himself in such a tangle with his twin.  
Was it welcomed? If not, why had he not asked for help? Reported his brother? Unlike Keith, Shiro would have credibility. People would believe him. No marks on his record. 

“...you let his ex see you two.” It hits him the same time he speaks it. Ryou sabotages romance with Shiro.  
He tests them. And his standards are nothing short of perfection. Nothing short of what he can provide. 

“‘Let’ isn’t the right word.” 

No, everything was planned for Ryou. A delicate, psychological experiment. And Keith his new test subject. 

“He wasn’t worth Takashi’s time”  
A cold chill runs Keith’s spine, wanting to ask what became of this suitor of Shiro’s, but Ryou is still toying that line of wearing Shiro’s persona as they speak. It’s jarring.

“He’s still with us. Just transferred schools. Takashi doesn’t like to talk about him much.”

A relief, but only momentarily. The psychological impact on Shiro is what Keith finds himself more preoccupied with, even as Ryou is tempting all Keith’s faculties to bolt.

That’s what he wants. Scare off those not ‘strong’ enough to see Shiro’s truth. 

Keith feels competitive.

It takes a few days, but Keith is finally able to face Shiro with what he’s learned. To hear Shiro’s side to things. He just has to weather the horror dawning on his face when Keith finally tells him.

He has to weather Shiro pulling away.

“I’m sorry — Keith, you should go-“  
Keith grits his teeth and instead probes for Shiro’s feelings, assuring him he’s not going to tell. Not unless Shiro wants.

“I’ve told him no — I told him I need my own life-“ He’s never seen Shiro look so stressed. He tries to be delicate.

“Have you reported him...?”

Shiro only looks more panicked, putting his hands up, like he wants to physically stop Keith from the impending offer to report in his stead. 

“I — I can’t — I...I enabled this — And he said he doesn’t want ‘help’. He doesn’t deserve to be thrown in jail, I just—“  
Shiro is torn.  
Keith doesn’t know the story yet, but he can see the genuine care on Shiro’s face for his brother. His self sacrificing to keep them safe. He backs off the idea of ‘saving’ Shiro from his brother. Starts to wonder instead how to simply unravel all that’s happened, how it happened  
He assures Shiro he won’t tell, he won’t do anything Shiro doesn’t want. But it doesn’t stop the distance from coming. Shiro avoids him, doesn’t do anything personal outside their tutoring, but the brimming spark between them feels forcefully snuffed. 

So Keith approaches Ryou.  
Or at least, he tries to. Wherever Shiro is, Ryou is bound to be a stone’s throw away. But Shiro isn’t around Keith right now, isn’t willing to put him into the uncomfortable position of knowing and not being able to say what he saw. 

It’s frustrating. He wants to be let in.  
He’s not expecting Ryou to be the one to do it, scowling as he makes eye contact with Keith across the commons, making for him with such a purpose in his steps, it leaves him a little frightened for the intention. He’s not wearing his Shiro mask.

“Stop avoiding Takashi.”  
Keith has to blink, gaping for a moment before answering truthfully.

“I’m not-“ It’s been quite the opposite, but Ryou looks ruffled. Antsy. 

“He’s upset. You haven’t been coming over like before. He’s biting his fingernails again.”

Keith is in a daze.

“Your brother told *me* to stay away.” 

Ryou isn’t listening. Takashi could do no wrong. This is an unforseen error. 

“He’s been depressed since you talked to him.” Keith knows better than to highlight the real issue. Ryou hadn’t expected Shiro and Keith to talk about it.  
He hadn’t expected Keith to stick around. He hadn’t expected anyone to pass his first ‘test’. Ostensibly, no one had before. 

“He’ll be home tonight at 7. Come over and apologize. Takashi is very forgiving.” 

Apologize for what, he wasn’t sure, but he’d take the tip anyway.

He wants to see Shiro. Wants to talk. Wants to know everything. Maybe then, he can help. 

He shows up at his door, determined and steeled for the worst. But jsut as things had gone before with them, it slides much more naturally into conversation than he hoped. Shiro opens up.

He tells him everything.

Their childhood. The fights, the alcohol, the abuse. He tells him about Ryou, quiet and scared. How that transformed over time, as Shiro took on more, Ryou changed. They were dependant. They only could trust and understand each other, comfort each other.  
He told him about Ryou’s obsession; how he came to see himself as Shiro’s ‘other’ half. An extension of him. Something dark and dangerous made to protect his ‘sweetness’. 

But Shiro could never put his foot down. Could sometimes believe him in weird ways.  
He assures Keith the best option is to just leave them; forget he found out about these twisted brothers and make friends on campus that weren’t so damaged. 

And Keith, unintentionally, finds himself laughing. He shoves fingers into his hair, picking at his lips with his teeth.

“Feel free to kick me out, Shiro... but I’m just finding out you’re more relatable than I thought.” 

Damaged, secretive. Life was fucked up, cruel, and they were getting through it, tooth and nail, in any way they knew how. 

Keith wasn’t deterred. He was invigorated.

“Will Ryou hurt you? Would he hurt me?” 

Shiro shakes his head quickly and something in Keith’s belly eases.

“No — no he wouldn’t —“ it goes unspoken that it’s conditional. Hurt Shiro, and hurt would be coming his way. It was as simple as that. 

“Then date me.”

And that’s how it starts. Shiro warns Keith about his brother’s ‘quirks’, skirting details that tended to be more... graphic in nature. But Ryou aside, dating Shiro is nice. It’s safe, comfortable. 

Ryou looms about, even gets a little huffy with affection, but it’s allowed.  
He uses his ‘Shiro’ mask less and less around Keith. With no secrets to keep, he speaks more openly with him. He’s...surprisingly pleasant, in his own ways. 

It’s only when he starts seeing signs of Ryou coming around his own apartment do things become tense again.

He hasn’t told Shiro about his ‘landlord’. Hasn’t shown him the bruises. He wouldn’t be in the arrangement he was in if he hadn’t tried to steal in the first place.

But Ryou would only see Keith fucking someone who wasn’t Shiro. That was a direct violation of ‘dont hurt Shiro’.

So he tries to spend as much time at Shiro’s place as he can. He doesn’t outright avoid intimacy, especially when Shiro seems so eager for it, despite himself. He does his best to keep himself covered, even when he wakes one morning to an extra body in the bed, staring at him. Ryou’s way of flaunting their ‘relationship’. He was possessive even still, reminding Keith who was really the provider for Shiro, even if he ‘tolerated’ Keith for Shiro’s happiness. He knew his brother’s weaknesses, his joys. Keith had to catch up.  
But today Ryou was doing something he didn’t normally do. He was touching Keith, laying behind him rather than behind Shiro, as he usually did. His hands slides over Keith’s naked hip, pressing into a yellowing bruise there, but Keith just grits his teeth. 

“This isn’t his.”

He’s right. Shiro doesn’t bruise him like this. Shiro isn’t so careless with his body when they lay together. His neck prickles with a cold sweat as Ryou shamelessly wanders Keith’s form, studying. He knows his brother’s marks, even on someone else’s skin. 

Keith is afraid to break the silence, still watching Shiro’s sleeping face, even as Ryou’s hands prod at him. But lying will be so much worse. It’s no coincidence Ryou is making him answer in front of a vulnerable Shiro.

“I need to pay rent.” Is all he offers in a soft rumble.

“Rent?” Ryou parrots, and Keith can hear the strain in his voice. Nothing would be worth breaking Shiro’s heart over. Least of all rent money. Guilt pools hot in Keith’s belly. “Live somewhere else.” He insists. 

“I can’t.” 

Another frustrated huff from Ryou.

“He has... videos.” Keith whispers again, feeling his fingers shaking as he watches Shiro shift just slightly, eyebrows still relaxed and lips parted. 

“Just ones of me stealing before... now... stuff he can sell...”

He feels hollowed out putting it to words.

He remembered the hand in his hair, jerking him up to face the camera across the room. At least once a month now, but it had gradually increased. 

Ryou falls silent behind him for a time.

He touches the bruise again.

“Will you stop if the videos go away?”

The unspoken gesture behind the inquiry makes Keith want to turn to face him, but Ryou’s hand keeps him still, heart pounding, breath quick and hushed. 

“I tried to stop before.” He promises, and Ryou understands the answer, even if it’s not direct. His body language relaxes.  
Keith only becomes more tense. He’s not sure what Ryou is capable of. Shiro might. But it’s out, and it’s not untrue.

He shivers as Ryou hand glides away from the markings, lips falling on Keith’s neck and it’s almost enough to make him jump, were it not so shockingly tender.  
“Don’t worry about rent anymore, Keith.” He nuzzles into his jaw and the sensation is akin to being licked by a wild animal. Keith’s nerves are frayed. His hand clutches close to Shiro’s. 

“Let me know when you’ve packed your things.” 

And he’s gone. Keith fights down panic.

He doesn’t know what he should say, what he shouldn’t. He can’t bring himself to wake Shiro, but Shiro can tell something is eating at Keith when he wakes regardless. 

“Your brother...” Keith starts and already Shiro is ashen. Anticipating the worst, he eyes Keith frantically.

Keith shakes his head, assuring Shiro he’s quite alright. But Ryou,

“Would he...kill someone, Shiro?” It’s honest and chilling and Shiro seems hesitant to accept, but also unwilling to deny.

“I...don’t know...”

Keith bites his lip and Shiro asks, “why...?”

He wasn’t really ready to tell his secrets, but after prising into Shiro’s life, all his deepest and darkest moments, it feels wrong to keep him out. So he doesn’t.

He wants to stop when Shiro’s knuckles turn white, when he finds himself choking on words he hadn’t uttered before but he manages. He spills it all, along with his shame and regret, eyes averted when he shows the bruise Ryou nosed out this morning, his words in parting. 

Shiro looks stunned; sick and angry, but there’s something else on his face. Something more frantic.  
He waits until Keith is done, until he comes down from the fear and shame and adrenaline, assuring Keith he’d done nothing wrong in keeping this to himself this far in. 

But he can’t keep the anxiety off his body language, asking Keith then for something even harder.

“I need to know where your landlord is Keith...I need to fix this first.”

Before Ryou does. Keith shakes his head, his body burns. He never should have said anything. But as much as he wishes he could kill the man himself, he knows keeping Ryou out of prison is a bigger concern.

He just never considered Ryou’s protection would extend to him as such. No one would go that far for the likes of him; to kill for a penniless drop out. And now Shiro would suffer for it. But if anyone could stop his brother, it would be him. 

So Keith tells him, warns him.

He makes Shiro promise not to do anything dangerous, to not confront his abuser alone. But Shiro assures him it’s just to stop Ryou. Keith could stay at his apartment, for however long he liked. The police would deal with the landlord. 

And he believes that...  
Until Shiro misses class. And dinner.

Keith is still dressed in yesterday’s clothes, waiting, waiting for one of the brothers to show up, for it to be over. He bites his nails to the bed, chews skin from his lips and cheeks. It’s eight o’clock and he can’t wait anymore.

It wasn’t supposed to be long. Ryou had even said he’d have time to pack his things. And Shiro said he wouldn’t approch the landlord on his own. Had the brothers fought? Were they there at the house? Or perhaps the police had gotten involved, after all. 

He takes his bike home.

His chest is aching, his lungs burning as he doesn’t even bother to chain his bike and dumps it on the rack.

His apartment light is on inside. His landlord’s old beater is parked out back.

Where were Shiro and Ryou?

The building is quiet.

“Hello?” He calls up the steps, not sure who’s voice he prefers to hear, but he gets no response either way. 

“Shiro?” He tries, the top step creaking as he crests the landing, but still no response comes. His front door is shut, but only he and his landlord have the key.

He tries the handle and the door pops open before he can even register the soft voices behind it. It’s unlocked. At least two people are inside. 

The lights are on, the kitchen, exactly the way he’d left it, down to the dishes in the sink. But there’s someone in the living room.  
Or rather, someone’s’. It takes a moment to register, but the soft murmuring is coming from just one of them; but it’s hard to tell who. They’re identical, afterall. 

Only one of them isn’t moving. Eyes wide and stalk still, one of the brothers stands in the middle of the room.  
The other, petting hair out of his face as he murmurs softly; presumably words of comfort, holding on to one bloodied hand as he soothes his brother.

“Ryou?” 

The one not spattered in blood turns his head.

It’s then Keith notices a pair of feet peeking from behind a chair.

Shiro is the one in the center of the room, white as a sheet, spare for the blood on his face and knuckles. Ryou is the one murmuring, smiling even.

And Keith’s landlord... well he knows the look of those overpolished, overused derby shoes anywhere. Made to even lick them once. He doesn’t need to see the body they’re attached to to know what’s happened, but his stomach bottoms out either way. Shiro hasn’t looked at him yet. He looks... wrong. Too stiff. Too still. But Ryou hasn’t stopped talking to him and only him. 

“I’ll take care of everything.”  
He squeezes his brother’s hand. 

“Go home with Keith, Takashi. I’ll be back tonight. You don’t have to worry about anything.” 

Shiro looks numb, shocked out of his skin, but he finally looks at Keith, eyes wide and lips pale as they part.

“Keith...I... I don’t...”

Keith is still too, staring, keeping his eyes off the shoes on the ground, focused instead on the two brothers as Ryou finally shifts away and Keith can see the subtle pattern of red flecked across Shiro’s shirt.

His brain stalls in his skull, his fight or flight flaring.

But when Shiro calls to him, he goes, eyes gluing to his face as he knows he might lose it it he looks anywhere else. 

“Shiro — it’s okay — Just come with me— Away from here-“ It’a a miracle his own voice works, but the same can’t be said of his lover.  
He stammers, eyes moving to the body again, but Keith gathers his attention, almost frenzied to keep eye contact. 

“Hey — hey, Shiro, c’mon-“ Ryou wipes blood from his brother, cleaning up, calm and collected as he picks around them. 

“I — I blacked out, Keith- I-“  
Keith shushes him even as Ryou begins to unbutton his clothes, peeling away the soiled shirt to press his own jacket into Shiro’s arms, gathering ‘evidence’ even as Shiro is on the verge of crisis. 

“He — he showed me a - a video and I—“

Acid wells in Keith’s throat.

“Shiro — it’s okay—“ his voice is shaking, but as Ryou finishes his small fretting, he releases a cleaned and shaken Shiro into his hold, their hands linking tightly together. Ryou himself is unruffled. 

“Go home and get some dinner for you two. I’ll be back when this is done.”

He says it like a bird had flown in needed to be shooed out. Or a dog had shaken mud on a clean carpet. 

It feels unreal to be pulling Shiro away from his own living room, guiding him to the door with shaking hands while his brother leans to hoist a pair of legs into his grasp.

His landlord, his rapist, is dead. And Shiro the one who killed him. 

It leaves both in a kind of daze they can’t put down, even as they stumble into a shower together, muttering and clinging to each other, standing in its heat until the spray runs cold. 

They’re in too deep.

Keith had already thought he was too deep before Shiro had found him in the library, eating the same shit food he had every day between classes. He thought he was too deep when he walked in on Shiro and his brother in bed together and still stuck around.

But now, undoubtedly,

He was in it with these two brothers for good. And the most terrifying aspect of it all... was how easily it seemed to all go away. How quickly he adjusted. Maybe he understands a little more about the other Shirogane, because he can’t stop himself from focusing on Takashi.

Ryou returns, clean and smiling and assured. No one will find out. The police come and quickly deem the death a scuffle between dealers; one sex offender killing the other over a money squabble. Another man is arrested, sex tapes exposed, and a girl returned to her family.  
It’s clean and tight and despite the sort of horror it had evoked within Shiro himself for the brief period, between Keith and Ryou, he was back to himself in a few weeks. 

And Keith? He was free. His things were moved to Shiro’s apartment, his tapes in particular never surfaced  
And Ryou’s personality toward Keith had turned on a dime. He was sweet and comforting. He welcomed Keith home and gave him little trouble when it came to Shiro. He was even more affectionate with Keith, to the extent of Shiro almost being jealous.  
But when Keith inquires after the change himself, the answer was almost too simple.

“You’re one of us. You understand what’s important.” He says it all too happily, folding Keith under his wing as he did the other things he cared about. 

And that’s how Keith found himself;  
Tucked between the two brothers, safe and strangely happy in this fucked up little family. 

He hadn’t quite understood it before, but he was starting to. He just had to relent that he would kill for either one of them to keep this.

And they, as it had been made abundantly clear, would for him.

**Author's Note:**

> =========
> 
> OOOF I DIDN’t mean to write THIS MUCH
> 
> I meant to do a summary, and then this happened  
> There’s a lot of content I didn’t touch on (a lot of it r18) but THANK you for the feedback on what I posted! I dunno if I’ll ever do anything more with this :0  
> It’s a very fucky story that sort of has a not so morally sound ending, but hey, not everything has to be pristine in fiction, yeah? The three of them wind up happy and that’s all I’m here for.


End file.
